Saturday, December 15, 2012

Authorities have released the names of the 26 victims killed when a gunman opened fire inside a Connecticut elementary school.

All six adults killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School were women. Of the 20 children who were shot to death, eight were boys and 12 were girls. All the children were ages 6 or 7.

Below is the list released by Connecticut State Police.

-- Charlotte Bacon, Female, 02-22-06

-- Daniel Barden, Male, 09-25-05

-- Rachel Davino, Female, 07-17-83

-- Olivia Engel, Female, 07-18-06

The images of Olivia Engel will live far beyond her short lifetime. There she is, visiting with Santa Claus, or feasting on a slice of birthday cake. There's the one of her swinging a pink baseball bat, and another posing on a boat. In some, she models a pretty white dress, in others she makes a silly face.

Dan Merton, a longtime friend of the girl's family, says he could never forget the child, and he has much to say when he thinks of her.

"She loved attention," he said. "She had perfect manners, perfect table manners. She was the teacher's pet, the line leader."

On Friday, Merton said, she was simply excited to go to school and return home and make a gingerbread house.

"Her only crime," he said, "is being a wiggly, smiley 6-year-old."

-- Josephine Gay, Female, 12-11-05

-- Ana Marquez-Greene, Female, 04-04-06

A year ago, 6-year-old Ana Marquez-Greene was reveling in holiday celebrations with her extended family on her first trip to Puerto Rico.

The girl's grandmother, Elba Marquez, said the child's family moved to Connecticut just two months ago, drawn from Canada, in part, by Sandy Hook's pristine reputation. The grandmother's brother, Jorge Marquez, is mayor of a Puerto Rican town and said the child's 9-year-old brother was also at the school, but he escaped safely.

Elba Marquez had just visited the new home over the Thanksgiving holiday and finds herself perplexed by what happened.

"It was a beautiful place, just beautiful," she said. "What happened does not match up with the place where they live."

-- Dylan Hockley, Male, 03-08-06

-- Dawn Hochsprung, Female, 06-28-65

Dawn Hochsprung's pride in Sandy Hook Elementary was clear. She regularly tweeted photos from her time as principal. Just this week, it was an image of students rehearsing for their winter concert.

She viewed her school as a model, telling The Newtown Bee newspaper in 2010 that "I don't think you could find a more positive place to bring students to every day." She had worked to make Sandy Hook a place of safety, too, and in October, the 47-year-old Hochsprung shared a picture of the school's evacuation drill with the message "Safety first."

When the unthinkable came, she was ready to defend. Officials said she died while lunging at the gunman in an attempt to overtake him.

"She had an extremely likable style about her," said Gerald Stomski, first selectman of Woodbury, where Hochsprung lived and had taught. "She was an extremely charismatic principal while she was here."

-- Madeleine F. Hsu, Female, 07-10-06

-- Catherine V. Hubbard, Female, 06-08-06

-- Chase Kowalski, Male, 10-31-05

Chase Kowalski was always outside, playing in the backyard, riding his bicycle. Just last week, he was visiting neighbor Kevin Grimes, telling him about completing -- and winning -- his first mini-triathlon.

"You couldn't think of a better child," Grimes said.

Grimes' own five children all attended Sandy Hook, too. Cars lined up outside the Kowalski's ranch home Saturday, and a state trooper's car idled in the driveway. Grimes spoke of the boy only in the present tense.

-- Jesse Lewis, Male, 06-30-06

-- James Mattioli, Male, 03-22-06

-- Grace McDonnell, Female, 11-04-05

-- Anne Marie Murphy, Female, 07-25-60

A happy soul. A good mother, wife and daughter. Artistic, fun-loving, witty and hardworking.

Remembering their daughter, Anne Marie Murphy, her parents had no shortage of adjectives to offer Newsday. When news of the shooting broke, Hugh and Alice McGowan waited for word of their daughter as hour by hour ticked by. And then it came.

Authorities told the couple their daughter was a hero who helped shield some of her students from the rain of bullets. As the grim news arrived, the victim's mother reached for her rosary.

"You don't expect your daughter to be murdered," her father told the newspaper. "It happens on TV. It happens elsewhere."

-- Emilie Parker, Female, 05-12-06

Fighting back tears and struggling to catch his breath, Robbie Parker, Emilie's father, told the world about a little girl who loved to draw and was always smiling, and he also reserved surprising words of sympathy for the gunman.

"She was beautiful. She was blond. She was always smiling," he said.

To the gunman's family, he said, "I can't imagine how hard this experience must be for you."

He said he struggled to explain the death to Emilie's two siblings, 3 and 4.

"They seem to get the fact that they have somebody they're going to miss very much," he said.

Parker said his daughter loved to try new things -- except for new food. And she was quick to cheer up those in need.

"She never missed an opportunity to draw a picture or make a card for those she around her," he said.

The world is a better place because Emilie was in it, he said.

"I'm so blessed to be her dad," he said.

-- Jack Pinto, Male, 05-06-06

-- Noah Pozner, Male, 11-20-06

-- Caroline Previdi, Female, 09-07-06

-- Jessica Rekos, Female, 05-10-06

-- Avielle Richman, Female, 10-17-06

-- Lauren Rousseau, Female, 06-?-82

Lauren Rousseau had spent years working as a substitute teacher and doing other jobs. So she was thrilled when she finally realized her goal this year to become a full-time teacher at Sandy Hook.

"It was the best year of her life," her mother, Teresa Rousseau, told the Danbury News-Times, where she is a copy editor.

Rousseau has been called gentle, spirited and active. She was a lover of music, dance and theater.

"I'm used to having people die who are older," her mother said, "not the person whose room is up over the kitchen."

-- Mary Sherlach, Female, 02-11-56

When the shots rang out, school psychologist Mary Sherlach, 56, threw herself into the danger.

Janet Robinson, the superintendent of Newtown Public Schools, said Sherlach and the school's principal ran toward the shooter. They lost their lives, rushing toward him.

Even as Sherlach neared retirement, her job at Sandy Hook was one she loved. Those who knew her called her a wonderful neighbor, a beautiful person, a dedicated educator.

Her son-in-law, Eric Schwartz, told the South Jersey Times that Sherlach relished helping children overcome their problems. She had planned to leave work early on Friday, he said. In a news conference Saturday, he told reporters the loss was devastating, but that Sherlach was doing what she loved.

"Mary felt like she was doing God's work," he said, "working with the children."

-- Victoria Soto, Female, 11-04-85

She beams in photos. Her enthusiasm was evident. She was doing, those who knew her say, what she loved.

And now, Victoria Soto is being called a hero.

Though details of the 27-year-old teacher's death remain fuzzy, her name has been invoked again and again as a portrait of selflessness and humanity among unfathomable evil.

A cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told ABC News that investigators told his family she was killed while shielding her students from danger. She reportedly hid some students in a bathroom or closet, ensuring they were safe.

"She was trying to shield, get her children into a closet and protect them from harm," Wiltsie told ABC. "And by doing that, put herself between the gunman and the children."

Soto's goal was simply to be a teacher.

"She lost her life doing what she loved," Wiltsie said.

Photos of Soto show her always with a wide smile, in pictures of her at her college graduation and in mundane daily life. She looks so young, barely an adult herself. Her goal was simply to be a teacher.

"You have a teacher who cared more about her students than herself," said Mayor John Harkins of Stratford, the town Soto hailed from and where more than 300 people gathered for a memorial service Saturday night. "That speaks volumes to her character, and her commitment and dedication."

Friday, December 14, 2012

I've been thinking about what happened today, but I can't think of anything to say.

So I am going to quote President Obama.

"The majority of those who died today were children — beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers — men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams."

"So our hearts are broken today — for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children, and for the families of the adults who were lost. ..."

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Friday, September 28, 2012

I often see comparisons of windows and Linux and I think you can't really do that. I mean you can compare an apple to an orange, like comparing Windows 7 to Windows 8. You're still talking about fruit, but it's different. Whereas the comparison between Windows and Linux is more like comparing an apple to a potato. I mean that in the sense that they're difficult to compare. Apples grow on trees and eventually crash to the ground. Potatoes are already in the ground and have nowhere to go but up. Apples can be eaten straight off the tree, but sometimes they don't taste quite right. Potatoes are hard and bitter out of the ground. You have to bake, boil, mash, fry or otherwise manipulate them before they're palatable. Apples have a relatively short shelf life. Potatoes shelf life varies based on how it's stored. Apples take a long time to grow and are occasionally expensive. Potatoes take a while to grow too, but they're much easier to regrow and are much less expensive than apples, most of the time. Apples tend to be mostly used in their original form, but occasionally they're juiced, or turned into apple sauce or a pie. Potatoes tend to have a lot more applications and variety of uses. Apples tend to get worms, potatoes occasionally get bugs. You see where I am going with this? So next time you want to compare the two remember their not the same thing and that makes comparing them in an apples to oranges way kind of difficult.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

So at my place of business we provide internet services to clients.
Some of these clients are unfortunately in rural areas and only have the evil folks at AT&T to help them out, or I should say take their money and run.
Basically it seems that every time I call in a down circuit or a circuit taking errors it never goes anywhere.
I have to put in escalation after escalation.
Then if I want to speak to a tester AT&T has this great service where it says "All testers are currently busy This message does not repeat."
Seriously!!
Then you're left on the line with dead air waiting and you wait a long time.
Further AT&T has this bad habit of closing tickets before your circuit is fixed.
Then they can't reopen the old ticket, oh no.
You have to open a brand new ticket so in their system it looks a brand new issue and then whoever you talk to next doesn't understand why you're mad.
I am, in case you're wondering on hold on the dead air line, waiting for a tester right now.
I am working on a ticket for a T1 that went down yesterday.
I originally called the ticket in yesterday morning at 9:50 AM
I had put in three escalations and found that it still hadn't reached a tester.
This morning I added another escalation at 7:10 AM ( 21 hours later) and was transferred to a tester.
He actually found an error or claims to have found an error in AT&T's CO
I think something is happening.
I got a call at about 11 AM now 25 hours later.
They tell me what the tester said this morning, they found something in the CO (Central Office) and are doing repairs.
I haven't heard anything since then so I called them back at 3, my mistake.
Ticket status now says repaired and closed.
WAIT!!
My T1 is still down you bastards!
So I call it in and get somebody who is like, "hmmm, what's going on here"
I explained my T1 is still down
He said, "ummm, let me transfer you to a tester"
Now I have been in the tester queue for 10+ minutes....listening to silence.
The hell??
Now the line is ringing!!
Dead silence and now ringing!!
Yay, finally got someone "Roy" on the line and he's looking up my ticket!
He hasn't said anything for about 3 minutes now...I am getting a little concerned.
Have I been put back on hold?
Wait he's back, he must have muted his phone.
He tells me "the computer" was inconclusive in it's testing.
He's going to test it again for me.
I am pretty sure this is going to require somebody to go onsite.
I would think a company like AT&T would be more efficient.
It seems no one knows what anyone else is doing and they rely too heavily on automated processes.
Every other provider we have does some type of either proactive or reactive monitoring where if a circuit goes down they notify us, a ticket is already open and people are working.
AT&T needs to customer to do all that themselves and unless you're a huge corporation putting down serious money they don't take the time to resolve your issues properly.
In case you're wondering I'm filling in commentary waiting for the tester!
YAY!
Their opening a ticket with the local telco...
Now I have to wait another day because the access hours are only 8 to 4.
Now I have to open another ticket for circuit errors at another site!
Also AT&T's trouble tickets begin with the letter N right now, problem is their automated system can't differentiate between my N and M so I have to repeat myself over and over again!
Anyway it takes about 5 minutes to call in one circuit using their automated system.
I'd rather speak to a person, but AT&T would prefer I wouldn't.
I also have to say "YES" as opposed to yeah or yup
The only good thing is 1 means yes and 2 means no so I don't have to talk to muchI wish they had a web based trouble reporting system, but it would be down all the time because of high usage.
WHAT??
SERIOUSLY??
They cancelled the circuit?
The local telco cancelled the circuit on the local loop?
WTF??
I don't know what to say.
I am so utterly confused!
FML!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

9/11 was a terrible day, but it is not going to always be on our minds. Most Americans alive today have no memory of when the Japanese bombed pearl Harbor and although we do commemorate the day it is not the same as before. The same thing will eventually happen with 9/11. Especially as the widows, widowers, children and parents of those who died age. Eventually we'll just have plaques and memorials. But they won't mean the same thing and eventually 9/11 will just be an event from the past to most people. Don't misunderstand me I know that for now people need to grieve and have closure. I am just saying that in 20 to 40 years from now it will just be another day.

Friday, August 31, 2012

318 this morning. I suppose this is a good sign. This weekend I need to do yard work so that should help too! Not sure if I'll start exercise of any kind yet, mostly because it's been busy.

Busy at home and busy at work. My wife started working again, she's a teacher, so I have had to help out more around the house. I don't mind at all, it just keeps me busy. Then work is crazy. I don't really want to expand on that.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

So for one reason or another I am dieting again. Mostly to better qualify for life insurance, but also to better my own health situation. It is so far a slow and nonuniform start. I started out in June weighing 334 pounds on my annoying bathroom scale. This morning I came in at 320. So 14 pounds in 12 weeks, which is slow and steady weight loss. I haven't stopped eating anything, but just less of everything. I am trying to reduce my portions, but not always. Also I have been doing a lot of house and yard work, which are my primary exercise. Although I am also trying to use the stairs at work whenever possible and occasionally go for walks with Evie in her stroller around my neighborhood at home. Its a start and I plan on continuing as long as it takes because I am just tired of being my usually morbid obese self.

Well, we've bought everything and the pantry, freezer and refrigerator are fully stocked. Including household goods such as laundry soap and diapers plus other things like that we came in around $360. We'll have to see how this endeavor goes. I think the helpful thing on my part is that I am also dieting. More on that later.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

We're trying out this new thing where we buy all our groceries, save a few perishable items, on a monthly basis. This got us to buy a lot of stuff at Sams Club. However we're also shopping around at all the other local stores, not that Tyler has much variety besides Walmart, Brookshires and Super1. Although we also got a few things at Walgreens and Dollar Tree. Basically we're looking for the most economical and at the same time largest quantity. The exceptions are Bananas, milk and yogurt, plus a few other items with short shelf lives that we don't want to freeze like bread. We're trying to do whatever we can to save money. We're also trying to not eat out anymore and cook at home as much as possible. It's just hard to avoid the temptation and convenience of fast food. Either way we'll see how this experiment goes.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

I'm spending too much of my time working. I sometimes feel like I don't get to spend any time with my family. Of course my commute has a lot to do with that as well. I drive 45 minutes each way. Then I'm at work for 7 and a half hours everyday plus an hour for lunch. Then occasionally I have to run some errands after work or I have to go pick up my wife or the baby. I get off work at 3:30 but sometimes I don't get home till 6. Just in case you're curious I get to work at 7. And then of course when I do get home a lot of the times I end up working from home too. Although I always try to wait until the baby is asleep if it all possible. But that usually don't leave me with much time anyway because I'm usually asleep by 9 since I have to wake up at 5 to get ready for the day and leave on time. Well it's almost 7 it is time for me to go inside and start working.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Did you miss me? See the awesome thing is this. A lot has happened and so now I get to throw in my two cents!

FIRST - A mormon, seriously. Conservatives need to watch some South Park.
Or hell just visit the Official LDS website.

SECOND - Paul Ryan? I mean that'll lose a lot of the senior population, plus a lot of the undecideds.

THIRD - Whats the deal with this pro rape senatorial candidate Aikin from Missouri or whatever that won't drop out of the senate race. Was he born retarded or did he have to work at it. He makes all Republicans look bad by association.

FOURTH - All in all the economy is improving slowly, the healthcare reform is slowly making a difference, we're out of Iraq, Bin Laden is dead, We're almost out of Afghanistan, oh and Obama actually cares about the middle class. Re-electing this guy is a no brainer.

NOW completely off topic they got thr funding for the Tesla Museum in New York. JUST GOOGLE Tesla Museum to find more.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Basically they don't exist. Too many of these jobs are network heavy, which I don't want to do or they don't pay enough.
I mean I don't mind networking, but my main focus is servers and software.
I am not actively looking for a job, but mostly just keeping my options open.
I think I have said this before, but I update my resume monthly. Although I need to post the updates online to the various job sites.
Anyway I have to pack my lunch now and get ready for work.

Friday, January 27, 2012

I am not sure why, but someone decided it would be a good idea to close the road I drive to work on. Just sitting in my car. Looking at another car, a silver Nissan altima. Kind of an ugly car. Oh well they turned around, in fact a lot of people are. I wonder if I should too?

Update
Seems there was no construction. Not sure why the road was closed. A few minutes after my first post traffic moved both ways again.